Racism in Advanced Capitalist Society: Comments on William J. Wilson\u27s The Truly Disadvantaged

Let me begin with words of praise. Bill Wilson\u27s The Truly Disadvantaged is a serious and important work. In it he alerts the nation to the alarming rise of social dislocation in Black inner city communities. But rather than joining with the conservative chorus which dominates political debate about this issue, Wilson focuses on the social structure, especially joblessness, as the key to the whole network of pathologies. Black inner city joblessness is, in turn, explained by large-scale economic shifts, interacting with a legacy of past racial discrimination, as well as various demographic factors. The result is the construction of a liberal analysis that challenges the dominant conservative position, which places the blame on the welfare system and ghetto subculture. Instead, Wilson claims, the blame lies with larger, social structural forces

Asian and Latino Immigrants in the Los Angeles Garment Industry: An Exploration of the Relationship Between Capitalism and Racial Oppression

The purpose of this paper is to examine how capitalism produces and reproduces racial oppression, by examining the dynamics of one industry in one location:the garment industry in Los Angeles.The L.A. garment industry uses immigrants from Latin America and Asia as workers and contractors. I plan to show how both groups are oppressed by the system, although differentially, by laying out the entire structure of relations in the industry, and the role of immigrants in it.In the course of describing the industry, I hope to demonstrate its excessive corruption at all levels,a corruption that is endemic to capitalism. A system that is characterized by such social decay is totally unequiped to solve such fundamental social problems as massive impoverishment and racial oppression

Organizing Immigrant Workers in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry

The apparel industry in the United States is declining. Every month new reports are put out enumerating the loss of jobs. Meanwhile, parallel numbers report the monthly rise of imports. However, even though apparel jobs are moving offshore, U.S.-based manufacturers and retailers still play a critical role in the production of apparel for the U.S. market. They have become multinational corporations. They now arrange for the production of their clothing in other countries, but they still remain in charge of ordering and marketing

Behind the label: inequality in the Los Angeles apparel industry

In a study crucial to our understanding of American social inequality, Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum investigate the return of sweatshops to the apparel industry, especially in Los Angeles. The "new" sweatshops, they say, need to be understood in terms of the decline in the American welfare state and its strong unions and the rise in global and flexible production. Apparel manufacturers now have the incentive to move production to wherever low-wage labor can be found, while maintaining arm's-length contractual relations that protect them from responsibility. The flight of the industry has led to a huge rise in apparel imports to the United States and to a decline in employment. Los Angeles, however, remains a puzzling exception in that its industry employment has continued to grow, to the point where L.A. is the largest center of apparel production in the nation. Not only the availability of low-wage immigrant (often undocumented) workers but also the focus on moderately priced, fashion-sensitive women's wear makes this possible. Behind the Label examines the players in the L.A. apparel industry, including manufacturers, retailers, contractors, and workers, evaluating the maldistribution of wealth and power. The authors explore government and union efforts to eradicate sweatshops while limiting the flight to Mexico and elsewhere, and they conclude with a description of the growing antisweatshop movement. Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 200